


Damaged

by Labradoodles_and_Muffins



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alcohol Abuse, Depression, Gen, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-18
Updated: 2012-12-18
Packaged: 2017-11-21 10:03:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/596435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Labradoodles_and_Muffins/pseuds/Labradoodles_and_Muffins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Suspended, going in no direction. Bit by bit she breaks down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Damaged

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by 'Damaged' by Plumb.
> 
> I chose Ino for this because she's the only girl that doesn't seem to have developed any skills that separate her from her family. It was also written years ago and I don't keep up with Naruto any more so it's probably vastly out of date by now.

She is the invisible girl. Oh sure, people know she's there and they talk to her, laugh with her but each of them have something that marks them as _them_. Kiba has Akamaru, Tenten has her weapons, and even Sakura has her super strength and is seen because of this and her links to Tsunade. She has nothing, nothing that she can claim as her own, to make her stand out from the rest. They're all so busy standing out that they don't notice her fading into the background.

She watches as they begin to pair off, friends, lovers, and companions and still no one sees her. She's beginning to get scared. What if she fades away completely? If she were to die now, how many would mourn her truly, the deep soul-wrenching mourning that she knows the others would receive? She searches for the answer and it hurts to admit it to herself.

Everyone thinks she is so open and forward, that she says what she wants and damns the consequences. This is what she wants them to think. What would they do if they knew that every single word that crossed her lips was planned, designed to fob off worry and concern? And it works. As time goes on people stop worrying about her. _She's so forward,_ they think, _if there was something wrong we'd hear about it._

Her team has tried and she loves them for it but still she holds them at an arm's length. She's been doing it for so long now and with such skill that they think this is as close as anyone will ever get. They think that _this_ , this upfront, loud, confident and shallow little girl is all that she is. They have no idea. Even though they are supposed to be a team, people never think of her when they discuss her team-mates and cannot find it in herself to blame them.

As time goes on, they begin to separate, being put into teams that better suit their skills. Shikamaru is heading up the ANBU Black Ops stealth operations, Lee is master of the taijutsu programme for all of Konoha and Naruto is undergoing training to become the next Hokage. Then there is she, perpetually frozen, going neither forwards nor backwards. She sometimes wishes that she was getting worse as a kunoichi, at least then she would know what direction she was headed in.

The shame has begun to turn to a numb agony and all of her nights are spent in a blur of alcohol and bad sex with strangers, even when she's on missions. Her various teams have often awoken to find her passed out on the floor the stench of sake and men coming from her in waves. The stories of her late night escapades had begun to leak out and she notices that people are looking at her differently. The civilians treat her like a whore and even her fellow shinobi have started to distance themselves from her.

She wakes up one morning with a hickey on her neck and a bottle in her hand. She knows that she is heading for disaster as she automatically lifts the bottle to finish off what little is left in it. The truth is, she no longer cares. She is constantly drunk and removed from the active missions' rota. Women begin to steer their husbands away from her when she staggers down the street and she is no longer introduced to her friends' boyfriends. She doesn't care for she knows that Sakura's boy was the one who was pounding into her last Friday and it fills her with a vicious vengeance.

Everyone knows when it began. First her team leader died but she was able to handle that. Her life began to truly shatter the day the one man she ever loved left her for that Sand bitch. What hurt the worst was that she was expected to remain on a team with him and that he had no idea of the pain he had caused her. Some genius he was. And so, Yamanka Ino spirals out of control and there's no one left to ground her.


End file.
